This fic was inspired by the songs "Who Wants to Live Forever?" by Queen & a little bit of "On My Own" from the musical Les Miserables.
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.
It was the day- the day that everyone tried to push away- well, everyone that was aware of what was going on.
Many were aware that it would come- her friends, her family, and the doctor. There was no one who wanted what was to happen to take place; but then, enemies never really did make themselves known. It was diagnosed that she had a deadly disease long ago.
She was a pianist. Not a professional one; she just played as a hobby. Her husband pretty much "brought home the bacon," but it didn't matter since they didn't have kids.
-
It all started one day right after she waved her husband, Sora, goodbye. She walked over to the piano, as she usually did, and pulled out the tatered sheet music of one of Chopin's Nocturnes. She started to play, softly but surely, and let her emotions hang loose in the air. Everyone who walked near their home could feel the warm and welcoming sound waves of the piano.
Suddenly, in the middle of a measure, she stopped, trying to catch her breath. Her chest felt tight and in pain. There was something completely wrong- she had never had any symptoms of allergies or asthma. She felt her body's temperature shoot up and the rest of her body grow weak.
She tried her hardest to muster up the strength to pick up the phone to call Sora, but she fell on the ground midway to the phone. She was so weak, so near unconsiousness that she didn't feel the force that was exerted on her when she fell to the cold tiles of the floor.
That night was the night when Sora almost died of a heart attack. When he got home, she was still lying on the floor, clearlyunconsious. He ran to her side, and quickly checked her pulse. Her heart, apparently, was still beating- so technically she was alive. He picked her up, and lay her on their bed.
"Kairi." He gently shook her shoulder. When she didn't respond, he shook her a little bit harder, with tears forming in his eyes. "Kairi... please wake up..." He prayed that she was just tired from the housekeeping that she was doing, and nothing more.
Warm tears slipped out of his eyes. He never pictured it ending this way- she was only in her forties, no longer young, but no where near old enough to die! They had been together since high school, and he assumed that it was how it would be- forever and always.
A tear fell onto Kairi's neck. Her eyes lazily opened, and a little moan came out of her mouth. "Wh-what time is it?"
"6:15.I just got home from work... what happened today?"
"I-I'm n-not s-sure..." she stuttered. She was shivering.
He pulled her into a tight embrace, and then wrapped the comforter around her. She was a woman that was able to run a mile a day before... why did she feel so weak now? As he felt her skin, it felt soft... too soft. He had ceased to notice her quick aging over the past few weeks, and she had not noticed her fatigue.
He felt her forehead. "I think it's just a fever..." he reassured her, but he felt as if he was just reassuring himself.
She whispered something before falling asleep again.
-
A few days whirled by, and Kairi had shown no signs of improvement. Every time Sora looked at her weak smiling face, he felt his heart break- and it was breaking into more pieces everyday. Every second at work, he was thinking about her, and was yelled at by the boss several times because of that.
"Sora. My office." Cloud firmly demmanded.
When Sora limped into the office, he realized that Cloud's expression looked much like one a prinicpal would wear when he would interrogate a student. Sora knew that he was in for it.
"Now," Cloud put a small forced smile on his face. "What has been happening at home? You seem distracted." Now, his tone sounded like a counselor's, talking to a teen who was on the verge of suicide. When was he going to get back into his "boss" character again?
"Just a few things... stress is all, really." After Sora let out the words, he noticed a framed picture of a brunette woman in a long pink dress. "Aerith" was written on the frame, and it was dated a few years back. "Who's she?" he asked, hoping to change the subject.
Apparently his strategy worked. "Aerith was my wife... she passed away a few years ago..." Cloud suddenly looked extremely depressed. "I thought that we would be together forever- apparently, I was wrong. It was strange how it happened; one day, she was perfectly fine, and the next, all I could do was smile at a dying soul in front of me..."
Sora froze. "Th-that's..."
"What's happening to yours?"
How did he know what? Sora wondered. "Y-yeah..."
"My advice for you: call a doctor. Now. They didn't have the medical ability to cure Aerith, but they might be able to for your wife, that is, if it's not too late. Go. You're dismissed for today."
Sora took advantage of his boss's sudden pity and rushed home to see Kairi. "Kai... I'm going to call a doctor..."
-
"She's not well. She has two months, max." It was all Sora could make out of the medical terminology that the doctor was using.
"That can't be true!"
"Yes, it is." The doctor packed up his equipment, and promptly left the house.
"Kairi..." Sora rushed to her side, and held her hand. "I'm not going to leave your side for the next two months. You can't die. The doctor couldn't have been telling the truth..."
"Sora..." Kairi spoke with her eyes closed, as if speaking was painful. "It's okay... no one lives forever anyway."
-
For those two months, Sora stayed true to his word. He only left her side to go to the bathroom or get food, and even then it was for short amounts of time. He didn't want her to die, and had childishly hoped that if he stayed next to her longer, then she would live longer.
Kairi was feeling more miserable every day. She could barely muster up the strength to sit up to get a sip of water, and even then, she only did so because of Sora's pleading. Her vision was blurred, she could barely make out what was her husband amoungst the rest of the objects in their room. And it was always either too warm or too cold.
She wanted just to die quickly- not that she wanted to break Sora's heart, but she didn't want to live every day feeling miserable and making Sora miserable with her constant requests about how cold or hot she felt. She could barely keep herself awake for the five minutes everyday that Sora took to tell her that he loved her. Her voice cracked as she responded, and she felt like she wasn't doing anything right- that she was just being a burden.
She let wet tears fall down her face as Sora held her. She didn't want to leave him, but she didn't want the two of them to suffer. She tried to hold on to life as long as she could, but she could feel it slipping away through the tips of her fingers.
The day slowly approached, and as Sora opened his eyes to see his suffering wife, he could no longer hear her breath. There was something wrong- and it was the day that everyone had hoped wouldn't come. Her chest didn't rise up and down... he quickly put two fingers on her neck to check her pulse. There was none.
He could feel his tears falling freely down his face. Although they had held off the ending of her life for about two months, it didn't change her death. Her body and soul that was once full of life was now lying next to him, a corpse. He cried and clutched her tightly, because he realized that it was all he could do.
He returned to work the next day, after burying her their back yard, amoungst the flowers that she had planted and raised. Now that she was gone, he wondered if he should take care of them.
Every time that he walked past the piano, he would have sworn he saw Kairi there, playing the Nocturnes that she had loved so much. He even recognized which was which now. But, every time he turned around, there stood the piano, lifeless, songless, and without Kairi.
He constantly pinched himself, hoping that this was just an enlongated nightmare- that he would wake up with his arms around Kairi, who would be playfully batting out of his grasp.
Everything around him looked lifeless. The plants looked wilted, the people with suffering faces, and the inatimate objects just standing there, glaring at him. He drove slowly that morning, and when the police officer scolded him, he unemotionally nodded, barely absorbing the officers comments.
When he arrived at work, all of his coworkers gathered around him. Cloud must have told everyone, so that he could be pitied. He looked at everyone oddly, not recognizing Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, or anyone else. There was not a familiar face in the crowd.
"Sora... how are you feeling?" Cloud himself walked up to him to give him a pity hug- something that he wouldn't be caught dead doing. Sora stared back, his eyes glazed over. He was aware that Cloud was there, he just didn't seem real.
Suddenly, big fat tears rolled down his eyes. He didn't care what everyone else was thinking- he was in a trance, unconcious to everything around him.
All he wanted was to be with Kairi. He felt the music of the Nocturnes around him, and could see her standing in front of him. She smiled at him, and said, "No one lives forever anyway..."